You know its a good week when two of Greinke's pitches get specific breakdowns.

Royals:

• Greinke’s Slider | FanGraphs Baseball
• The Curves of Zack Greinke - Beyond the Box Score

Continue reading this post »

We cover prospect #24-19 in this installment of the our Prospect List.  I decided to drop adding pics because it was such a headache last time.  We've got some high ceiling players on this section--if even one of them came close to reaching their potential, that would be a good ratio.  As was mentioned in the Community Prospect List comments, it can very hard to know how to rank Carlos Rosa--25, signed for $25,000 and ready to contribute in the big leagues as a reliever vs.  Chelsor Cuthbert--16, signed for $1.5 million and miles away from the big leagues but with a huge ceiling.  Rosa might be a free agent by the time Cuthbert is contributing--but I've got Cuthbert a couple spots ahead--I wouldn't argue with anyone who wanted to flip them around.  I tend to think of a minor league system in tiers--with players within the tier as pretty much interchangeable.  Anyway on to the rankings:

24--Derrick Robinson--CF--Age:22

Robinson is an important figure in the recent history of the Royals draft--even if he never develops into anything special.  Robinson was ranked as a 1st Round talent, but he fell to the 4th Round of the 2006 draft because he had a football scholarship to the University of Florida to play cornerback.  The Royals gave him $850,000 to sign and not play football.  That began a trend of the Royals being willing to dish out big bucks to players who dropped in the draft due to signability (Melville, Esposito--even though he didn't sign, Myers, Dwyer, Simmons, etc.).  It was and is a good strategy and got better as the Royals have (since Robinson) stayed away from giving big bucks to players who main tool is speed.  As to Robinson as a player, the Royals have claimed from the day he signed that he was more than just a speed guy--that they believed he could and would hit.  Speed is his calling card and with that comes what is supposed to be very good defense in CF.  But the bat hasn't developed like the Royals had hoped.  2008 showed some positives as he hit 245/316/322 as a 20 year old in Wilmington.  Those weren't good numbers but they showed some progress from previous numbers (especially with taking a walk).  This year, however he regressed (as you see above).  His power dropped slightly and he took fewer walks.  It actually looked worse at the end of July, then in August he hit 311/362/513 and hit 5 home runs (more than doubling his career total).  The past couple of years, he's posted BABIP that are rather low for someone with his speed.  He'll go to AA next year where it would be good to see him restore those walks and flash his power more consistently.

Continue reading this post »

Mike Montgomery comfortably gets the call as the Royals Top Prospect on our poll.  He beat out Mike Moustakas and Aaron Crow.  So now the fight for #2 begins.  As before, the choices are listed alphabetically and you can make your case in the comment section.  I've added a couple of names that were listed in the comment section of the last poll.

#1--Mike Montgomery--LHP

More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

Zack Greinke was named the 2009 American League Cy Young Tuesday. The first Royal to win the award since 1994. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Browse more photos »

Zack Greinke capped a memorable 2009 Tuesday, winning the Cy Young Award, presented annually by the Baseball Writers of America.

Greinke led the Major Leagues with a sterling 2.16 ERA, despite pitching in front of one of the worst defenses in the American League. In August, there seemed to be doubt as to Greinke's viability as a candidate, but a strong finish by the Royal Ace solidified his support. After falling to 11-8 thanks to pitching for the worst team in the league, Greinke went 6-2 over his final eight starts, posting a 1.29 ERA in the process. Greinke led the American League in WHIP.

Greinke's win is especially sweet for Royals fans, who have wholeheartedly embraced Greinke as one of their own. Amidst the wreckage of a lost baseball decade in Kansas City, Greinke, both on the field, and with his down-to-earth nature and sometimes surrealist wit, has been a treasure.

Greinke did not allow a run until his fifth start of the season and gained additional notoriety thanks to a Sports Illustrated cover story detailing his struggles with anxiety off the field and his return to baseball (which actually happened two to three years ago, depending on how you look at it).

Greinke is the first Royal to win the award since David Cone did so in 1994. Brett Saberhagen won the Cy Young twice, claiming the prize in 1985 and 1989. Greinke received 25 of 28 votes.

The Award was strongly pushed by the Royals, who made no secret of their belief that Greinke was the best pitcher in the American League.

Continue reading this post »

Before we get to the top of my personal Royals Prospect List, I thought we would let you all voice who you think the Royals Top Prospects are.  I think we did this last year, I can't remember who spearheaded it, but I'll go ahead and get the ball rolling.  I haven't decided if we'll do 10, 15 or 20.  You can vote for who you think deserves the top spot and make your case in the comment section.  The choices below are listed alphabetically.

More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

This is better than any award. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Browse more photos »

Dear Zack,

Thank you for an amazing 2009.

We know that if there's any athlete out there who may actually not care about the big fancy baseball awards, it's you. Still, just in case something insanely stupid happens and you don't win the Cy Young, we'd just like to say now that your 2009 season was one of the coolest things we've seen in a long time. Your starts were something we planned our life around and watching you perform brought out a side of us that many of us didn't know we had as fans. You made baseball incredibly fun. You made us proud to cheer for this team. Maybe you saw us making stupid signs. Hopefully you heard us cheer at least once or twice.

It's crazy that you've been a Royal since 2004. Has it been that long? Man, you still seem like a kid. A lot of us feel like we've gotten to know you a little bit over these last five years, which you would probably consider fairly idiotic, but it is the truth. You seem like one of us, which is crazy because well... you're Zack Greinke.

Honestly, we all really want you to win this silly thing. We really really do. Seriously though, it doesn't even matter. (Though if you don't, something, somewhere, is going to burn.) The Cy Young Award isn't big enough, isn't prestigious enough, to accurately describe what you did in 2009. Two people win the Cy every year after all. Two people don't do what you just did every season, however.

So thanks, man. Like, really. We mean it. This is getting too long... we'd give you an awkward bro hug if we could.

Sincerely,

Fans of the Kansas City Royals

Did the SB Nation baseball bloggers get it right?

Continue reading this post »

Here we are: the Top 30.  I plan to go through them 6 at a time and then do a wrap up/overview of the Royals system.  Since we are doing only 6 at a time, I'm able to squeeze in some previous years' stats as well as a few pictures.  I'll go a little more in depth for my comments.

Disco Hayes via royals.mlblogs.com

Continue reading this post »

Hopefully this is an accurate preview of the "real" award to come. Greinke claimed the AL CYA from the SB Nation baseball bloggers with little challenge.

Continue reading this post »

Every season, the baseball team at SB Nation gets together and votes on the same name-brand season awards that the official baseball writers do. We follow the same format and the same points system. Like the BBWAA, votes are due before the postseason.

So who claimed the coveted SB Nation Rookie of the Year title?

Continue reading this post »